mambo italiano

the other night we were in the city and hungry... nothing new there...

instead of the usual vietnamese/chinese/japanese affair we usually eat i thought maybe we should try the new italian place on swanston st! at first, we were a little hesitant because there were bogans.com everywhere outside... but after a little time we ventured up the stairs of what i was hoping to be an authentic italiano atmosphere...

walk up the stairs... see a big sign written in texta "CASH ONLY" ... i should've known by this stage it can mean one thing!!

asians are involved... and sure enough... there was one to greet us at the door. and then came our indian waitress...

now, dont get me wrong, im all up for cross cultured restaurants etc.. but when you can't actually make visual contact with any of the actual ethnicity of the italian community... it should set alarm bells ringing...

we are seated in an empty room, next door to the other room which

is slightly full... and tucked away in the corner.. the decor is nice, and they have tried to put up some nice photos of the food and the sights (ie - colleseum, fountains and general roman statues) on the walls...

and then the menu. i dont think i have ever seen such a blatant rip off of another menu!!!

la porchetta anyone??? even the pictures were identical!!!

so we order and hope for the best...

and ... NO DEAL... it totally shits me/makes me sad when you can honestly say you could have made better food than they serve.. and it would actually be cheaper... not even the soundtrack of disco hits (vengaboys, kylie etc) was worth the $$$ !!!

so, in protest... i decided that i would do a little graffiti to make up for the kinda shithouse meal/experience that was "menu italiano"

yeh... that tiny speck of red paper!!! that was meeeeee! i put it there... so if anyone ever goes there... maybe request the table in the other room in the corner next to the window... and you can tell me if it's still there!!

all in all it was a kinda funny experience... and the food... was... average... maybe a bigger serve and some more toppings on the 3 ingredient vegetarian pizza and i'll go back... some day!